The Necessity of an Emic Paradigm in Psychology

Abstract

This article provides an overview of developments in the field of Black/Africana/Pan African psychology over the past 50 years. It has evolved toward production of psychological knowledge grounded in an emic cultural paradigm consistent with the understandings emerging from classical African civilization and across the Diaspora. The historical context for the development of a Black/Africana cultural paradigm is discussed, including an analysis of the failure of Eurowestern psychology to effectively address the mental health needs of people of African ancestry, particularly as exemplified in the experience of Non-immigrant Africans in the Americas (NIAAs). Readers are introduced to the rise of African-centered cultural frames of reference, values, and psychological models, practices, and strategies. The development of Optimal Psychology or Optimal Conceptual Theory (OCT) is highlighted. OCT is a comprehensive theory successfully implemented, utilized, and researched for more than 40 years. The production of psychological knowledge built upon a cultural paradigm rooted in the wisdom tradition of African deep thought traceable to the birthplace of all humankind is essential to a comprehensive understanding of humanity and will be described.

Global Diversity of Authors, Editors, and Journal Ownership Across Subdisciplines of Psychology: Current State and Policy Implications

“…Culturally misapplied interventions can do more harm than good (Christopher et al, 2014). The general failure of traditional psychology in effectively addressing the mental-health needs of people with African ancestry has given rise to an Africana cultural paradigm, one that emphasizes an indigenous, emic (as opposed to etic) frame of reference (Myers et al, 2022). Likewise, the field of psychological testing has made it clear that, before measures and questionnaires can be applied to a different cultural context, they must be shown to assess the same construct across different cultures (i.e., cross-cultural measurement invariance/validity; Milfont & Fischer, 2010).…”

La lutte continue: Louis Mars and the genesis of ethnopsychiatry.

“…The scientific contributions of Western mental health professionals have been lauded and leveraged for global mental health responses, despite the growing understanding that universalist Eurocentric conceptions of wellness are illfitted for the majority of the world (Kambon, 2003;Watters, 2010;Young, 1997), and that these conceptions of mental health are often rooted within the specific context of Western capitalism (Danziger, 1990;Fisher, 2009;Myers et al, 2022). The qualifier of mental health disorders as "global" has been both imperialistic and harmful (Summerfield, 1999(Summerfield, , 2003.…”

“…The qualifier of mental health disorders as "global" has been both imperialistic and harmful (Summerfield, 1999(Summerfield, , 2003. In recent years, the necessity of assessing the colonial histories and treatment inefficiencies of solely etic, Western-based psychological interventions has led to increased recognition of the need for indigenous healing methods (Bedi, 2018;Myers et al, 2022). There has also been further attention to the innovations laid by prominent decolonial scholars like Frantz Fanon (e.g.…”

“…While this movement was formalized in the United States during specific eras of Black political struggle, many of these scholars drew clear ties to liberatory African descendent scholars and activists like Fanon and Marcus Garvey. Others, such as Myers et al (2022), Hilliard (1998), and Nobles (1972) conceptualized the study of the psyche and spirit traced back to the earliest Egyptian and Nubian civilizations. Later on, Nobles (2015b) connected this essential "African philosophical thread" to the success of the Haitian revolution.…”

“…Today, as theoretical innovations such as optimal conceptual theory and clinical interventions, such as the Emotional Emancipation Circles, Sawubona Healing Circles, and Ntu Psychotherapy, in Black/African-centered psychology developed to counter the historic disenfranchisement of psychology from the well-being of African peoples, the identification and dissemination of the work of precursors in decolonial psychology have taken on renewed urgency (Auguste et al, 2022;Grills et al, 2016;Myers et al, 2018Myers et al, , 2022Phillips, 1990). There may be no better example of such a scholar than the 20th-century Haitian neuropsychiatrist and ethnologist Dr. Louis Mars.…”